Great comments, people. This is the quintessential Aussie "shafted-by-society" song that this country sadly continues to promote to this day. It started with the convicts and it lives within every generation of larrikins and fair-dinkum battlers - men AND women.
To "Pentecost", the Silver City is the nickname for the city of Broken Hill, NSW, founded over 120 years ago was one of the largest silver-lead mines in the world, and home to some of the longest running battler societies this country has ever seen. It is also the foundation for the "Broken Hill Proprietary Company", now known as BHPBilliton, one of the world's largest mining companies. Despite the immense wealth, technological, political and social change generated there, it remains ones of the poorest cites in the state, with long term health impacts from mining lead being just one.
Many Vietnam Vets returned to mining towns after the war, to seek anonymity and respite from sheer prejudice in the capital cities in the 1970s. Often it was the only jobs they could get.
So the "cold-turkey" refers to the hostile reception the vets got all over the country from deep inland (eg Broken Hill) to the coastal capital cities.
"Held a job on an oil-rig
Flying choppers when I could
But the nightlife nearly drove me round the bend"
There are still many ex-military people in the oil and mining industry, I guess you need a military mind to put up with the isolation and the abject hard yakka and inherent destruction of mining.
But Khe Sanh still gets a good workout in these mining camps, and it is not far off the mark to declare this song as an unofficial national anthem
Great comments, people. This is the quintessential Aussie "shafted-by-society" song that this country sadly continues to promote to this day. It started with the convicts and it lives within every generation of larrikins and fair-dinkum battlers - men AND women.
To "Pentecost", the Silver City is the nickname for the city of Broken Hill, NSW, founded over 120 years ago was one of the largest silver-lead mines in the world, and home to some of the longest running battler societies this country has ever seen. It is also the foundation for the "Broken Hill Proprietary Company", now known as BHPBilliton, one of the world's largest mining companies. Despite the immense wealth, technological, political and social change generated there, it remains ones of the poorest cites in the state, with long term health impacts from mining lead being just one.
Many Vietnam Vets returned to mining towns after the war, to seek anonymity and respite from sheer prejudice in the capital cities in the 1970s. Often it was the only jobs they could get.
So the "cold-turkey" refers to the hostile reception the vets got all over the country from deep inland (eg Broken Hill) to the coastal capital cities.
"Held a job on an oil-rig Flying choppers when I could But the nightlife nearly drove me round the bend" There are still many ex-military people in the oil and mining industry, I guess you need a military mind to put up with the isolation and the abject hard yakka and inherent destruction of mining.
But Khe Sanh still gets a good workout in these mining camps, and it is not far off the mark to declare this song as an unofficial national anthem